I spoke with Gillian Larson on Jan 24, 2023 and we spoke about her adventures with her horses and how she works hard to discern fear versus intuition when she is on cross country trails for weeks and months at a time. Her awareness of her partners who travel with her is a whole other intuitive tool. It was interesting to see how important patterns were to staying in a good place.

Bio
Ever since she was a young child, Gillian Larson has been exploring the outdoors on
horseback. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in biology, Gillian became the youngest person to solo thru-ride the Pacific Crest Trail, covering the 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada in 2014, then again in 2016. She rode the Arizona Trail and the Colorado Trail in 2017, then completed another Mexico-to-Canada route on the Continental Divide Trail in 2018—the first person to thru-ride the PCT and the CDT with the same two horses. Most recently, Gillian tackled a third thru-ride of the PCT in 2022, this time
with a rotating team of 4 horses and a mule, for a total of more than 13,500 back country miles. 
Also in 2022, Gillian received her M.A. in Agricultural Education at Cal Poly to become a better mentor and educator for aspiring back country riders. She provides private consultations and in-person workshops as well as online resources to facilitate sharing her knowledge and experience. Through her social media she has collaborated with brands and creators that inspire others to explore the outdoors and encourage women to embrace adventure and independence, and she also trains occasional client horses when time allows.
Gillian cultivates an ethos of equestrian travel that is modern and progressive, blending a love of the outdoors with respect and care for her equine partners. Her goal is to create accessible content that demystifies the skills needed to explore the backcountry with equines. She focuses on educating others about the many challenges of wilderness equestrian travel while continuing to push the boundaries of long-distance riding and helping to modernize traditional packing techniques. She currently lives on a ranch in California’s central coast along with her expanding
herd of seven horses and a mule.
Visit www.gillianlarson.net for more information, or find her on Instagram at @thru_rider.

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